Hot Topics:

‘Same s*** all day long’: Alec Baldwin goes off on MSNBC

28

Shares

Email this story to a friend

Given that actor and outspoken liberal Alec Baldwin was hired, then quickly and unceremoniously fired by MSNBC in 2013 following one of his public outbursts — it included him probably throwing out an anti-gay insult — it makes sense that he’d be a little scorned.

AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File

But “bitter” would be the understatement of the year in describing a new first-person piece by Baldwin in New York magazine, wherein he lashes out at MSNBC and its on-air talent with a white hot hate.

I watched MSNBC, prior to working there, very sporadically. Once I had signed a contract with them, I wanted to see more of what they were about. It turned out to be the same shit all day long. The only difference was who was actually pulling off whatever act they had come up with. “Morning Joe” was boring. Scarborough is neither eloquent nor funny. And merely cranky doesn’t always work well in the morning. Mika [Brzezinski]. is the Margaret Dumont of cable news. I liked Chris Jansing a lot. Very straightforward. I like Lawrence O’Donnell, but he’s too smart to be doing that show. Rachel Maddow is Rachel Maddow, the ultimate wonk/dweeb who got a show, polished it, made it her own. She’s talented. The problem with everybody on MSNBC is none of them are funny, although that doesn’t prevent them from trying to be. …

Once they fired me, a former MSNBC employee I knew emailed me. He said, “You watch now, Phil is going to start leaking left and right to bury you.” When I left, “Page Six” was flooded with lies about me. Another told me, regarding the “toxic little queen” comment, that Rachel Maddow was the prime mover in my firing, as she was aghast that I had been hired and viewed me as equivalent to Mel Gibson. Another source told me, “You know who’s going to get you fired, don’t you? Rachel. Phil will do whatever Rachel tells him to do.” I think Rachel Maddow is quite good at what she does. I also think she’s a phony who doesn’t have the same passion for the truth off-camera that she seems to have on the air.